Hell's Glitch (initial draft)

I_K 1.1 Loss

Chapter 1

"When there were neither the creation, nor the sun, the moon, the planets, and the earth, there was only darkness and everything was created from the darkness."

The rain clouds finally parted and the sun was revealed to us on this cool summer day. Julie and Dan, my loving parents, beckoned me from out of the darkness of the café, both way to excited, almost like children. I smiled at them as they pulled me into the sun, feigning reluctance. It had been so long since I'd last seen them and I was honestly every minute of my summer back home. I loved living at the academy, but I could not deny that I was majorly homesick.

You could see energetic kids for as far as the eye could see and alongside them their tired and stressed parents, the opposite of the scene we were painting. Dan pointed to all the rides, daring me to ride each and every one of them as he pointed. I told him to wait until the food I'd just scarfed down properly digested. He called me out on being a scaredy-cat and asked what kind of pilot is scared of a few theme park rides. I protested, too much if I'm honest. He was right. I was scared, but not of the rides themselves, but of the fact that I wasn't the one operating them.

Laughing, Julie and Dan pulled me towards the Reality Spinner, a ride that looked like a glorified washing machine. I resisted and protested, my laughs joining theirs. I wanted no part in that, but if they would go, so would I.

They stopped smiling. I did too. We heard something familiar to our military trained ears, something foreign to a place like this. We looked around and waited for only a few seconds before we heard it again, this time louder, closer. Now everyone knew what it was and panic spread as the thick crowd, a tumultuous sea of humanity, parted and ran.

My parents and I held close, hand to hand to hand, but it was no use. They were cut down in front of me, their bodies shielding me from the worst. I hit the ground hard, face first, crying as I beheld their bodies. I lay next to them, unable to run, not for lack of trying but because my legs wouldn't move and my body filled with a pain I was trying my damnedest to ignore and as I blacked out, I saw his face, heard his vile name and the number forever associated with his evil act. Dane Mills, eighty-seven kills, by the man they said was possessed by the devil.

Another spray of bullets, this one echoing in my head, woke me up from that all too familiar nightmare, sweating like mad. Where one panic ended, another began. Instinctively, I rolled over to my nightstand and pulled the pistol I stored there from the leather holster I screwed under the middle shelf. I rolled back to the other side of the bed, to my chair, and threw myself into it more recklessly than I intended, nearly tipping myself over in the process. Tina busted into my room and stabilized me before I fell.

"What the hell are you doing?" she yelled. "Get down!"

She lifted me and gently laid me on the floor as I protested. It was all I could do. Tina was both bigger and stronger than I was and had two more legs than I currently had. She saw the gun in my hand and glared at me with a look I swore was reserved for the worst blood enemies.

"You plan on getting yourself killed, stupid?"

"No," I said as calmly as I could. "I was going to check the parameter of the house. Make sure we haven't been breached."

"In a wheelchair?" she said with a scoff. "You can leave that military tough talk back at the academy. Right now it's just the two of us. Neither of us are going anywhere."

"We need to make sure no one's gotten into the house and to see if anyone out there got hurt. It's our neighbors after all."

Tina shook her head, her dark mid-length hair catching the moonlight from my room window, a likely sign that she was reluctantly seeing things my way. She stared at me with those gentle brown eyes of hers that shined in the low light.

"You're impossible, you know that?"

I gave her a reassuring smile and started crawling back to my chair.

"Stop right there, Ximana," she said, bass giving weight to her voice. Not wanting to waste time, I stopped and stared at my chair instead of turning to face her.

"What?" I said indignantly.

"Give me the gun. I'll check the parameter."

"But—"

"No buts. I can do this faster and quieter than you."

It was my turn to give her a glare, but mine was due to knowing I'd been utterly defeated, once more thanks to my handicap.

"Be careful," I mumbled as I handed over the gun.

She winked at me and before leaving the room said, "Stay here, right in this room, little sister."

I nodded and watched her go before wheeling myself over to the side of my bedroom window. There wasn't much going on out front. Of course, there was very little I could see with the streetlights still out of order, as they had been for a whole year now. I heard Tina sneak out of the house a few minutes later. In between that and the ten minutes it took her to get back, I was basically a bundle of nerves, wishing I'd hidden two guns in my room. Dad's stash was all the way upstairs, now in the attic.

Tina announced herself to me at the front door before walking back into my room.

"I saw Mr. Gonzalez out there. He said a car belonging to one of the Johnson boys got shot up."

"Johnson boys?" I asked.

"Yeah, three houses down. Across the street. It's likely just some kids trying to scare them. No one was inside. No one was hurt."

I gave her a curious look and asked, "Is that supposed to make me feel better? I'd say a kid with a gun is arguably worse."

"You're telling me," she said eying me up and down.

"I'm twenty, and have been properly trained by dad and the academy."

"I guess ..."

"Well ..."

"Hmmm?"

"Give it back!"

She sighed before reluctantly handing over the pistol.

"I'm a paraplegic amputee, Tina, not a helpless baby. You saw my training. You know I can take care of myself."

She looked at me apologetically.

"I know. I just want to keep you safe."

"Me too."

She walked over to me and knelt down to hug me. As always, her hug and followup kiss were as gentle as can be.

"I love you, hermana. Now go get some rest."

"You too."

She left me in the dark solitude of my room to ponder a multitude of conflicting thoughts. I did want to protect my sister, more than anything, but how could I do that in this neighborhood. I needed money and I needed a lot of it.